THE GOOD PLACE Roundtable: Tahani Al-Jamil

The Good Place aired another great episode last night. Chidi starts teaching Eleanor about ethics. Instead of practicing Chidi’s teachings Eleanor decides to prove Tahani isn’t as good as she seems. She tries her best but Tahani actually is a good person and by the end of the episode Eleanor comes around a little, comforting Tahani when she is feeling down. That isn’t the craziest part of the episode though, and considering Eleanor’s behavior this far you might think it couldn’t get crazier. At the end of the episode we learn Tahani’s husband is also not supposed to be in the good place. Something he confides to Eleanor.

Was Janet the best part of this week’s episode? Which “personality” was your favorite?
Melissa: She was certainly the funniest! I liked “fun fact Janet” because she gave us some additional insight into how this version of the afterlife operates.
Louise: I think Janet was the best part this week, minus the burning bush. I’m all for the sexual frustrated Janet who really just needed to go find some fic. Her game needs work until then.
Leah: I loved moody, welding Janet. I was cracking up the whole time.

Are you glad to finally see Eleanor doing something good?
Melissa: Yes. For this show to succeed, we need to see growth from our leads. This week we had Eleanor make incremental progress toward becoming a better person; Chidi identifying a passion for writing while letting go of his passion project (I’m a writer and I totally get it); and Tahini showing some human frailty. I’m 30% more interested in all of them as a result.
Louise: I’m glad Eleanor’s learning to be something other than what she was before. But in her life, she had some good points. People are mostly bad and we can’t judge everyone one an equal footing.
Leah: You can’t get on board with someone who is bad all the time, when being good seems so imperative. I was glad to see little baby steps in the process.

Let’s talk that final reveal! Eleanor isn’t the only “mistake”! Do you think there are others? How will this effect Eleanor’s progress?
Melissa: I second Louise’s speculation that the entire neighborhood is made up of “mistakes”. Or maybe half the neighborhood. What if it’s an experiment to see if bad people can be reformed?
Louise: Man, I love that Eleanor’s not the only mistake. I’m sure there are others, and I actually wouldn’t be shocked if the whole neighborhood is mistakes who are trying to be better than they were before. Tahani is too nice to really not have been bad before (I’m with Eleanor on that one!)
Leah: The end made the whole episode for me. The idea that maybe this is an experimental neighborhood is very interesting. I found myself wondering if to get to the Really Good Place the good people in the neighborhood have to truly change the not so good person they were paired with. Unbeknownst to them, of course.

The Good Place airs Thursday 8:30/7:30c on NBC